Associate Director, Omnichannel Strategy

Function: AD, Omnichannel Digital Strategy — Livestock
Reports To: Director, Digital Operations
Location: Lenexa, KS — Hybrid (3 days/week onsite)

About the role

The Digital Business Liaison is the strategic connective layer between the Livestock business (marketing teams) and the Digital Operations execution engine. Acting as a true business partner, this person aligns business strategy across the full digital ecosystem (web, email/Sales Force Marketing Cloud (SFMC), digital content) into cohesive omnichannel strategies for both farmers/producers and veterinary professionals. This is a strategic, execution-accountable role: the Liaison translates business priorities into clear internal digital briefs, plans and prioritizes the digital campaign backlog, and reports performance in ways that inform future business decisions — contributing directly to the long-term growth of the Animal Health business.

Responsibilities

• Strategic Business Partnership: Serve as the primary point of contact and trusted advisor between Livestock Brand/Species stakeholders and the Digital Operations team, embedding digital and omnichannel thinking into brand and media planning from the outset.
• Omnichannel Alignment: Align the business unit's strategy across the full digital ecosystem — web, SFMC/email, digital content — into unified omnichannel strategies that engage farmers/producers and veterinary professionals throughout the customer journey.
• Brief Development & Intake: Translate business needs into clear, complete, and actionable internal digital briefs — scoping objectives, timelines, and success metrics at intake — so the digital team (Content, Analytics, Web, SFMC) can deliver without rework or back-and-forth. Coordinate global and local lead campaigns.
• Backlog Prioritization & Governance: Own and prioritize the multi-brand digital backlog, balancing urgency, capacity, and strategic value. Facilitate regular intake and prioritization sessions with stakeholders, and maintain the templates, criteria, and SLAs that keep the model scalable as demand grows.
• Performance Reporting: Consolidate campaign and channel performance into business-relevant narratives and recommendations that inform future business decisions.
• Risk Management & Feedback Loop: Proactively flag capacity constraints, conflicting priorities, or scope changes before they become delivery risks. Maintain a two-way flow of context — carrying execution constraints back to the business and business nuance forward to execution.
• Ongoing / As-Needed:
  • Ensure content accuracy and execution alignment with strategic campaigns
  • Build success plans and benchmarks for campaign performance
  • Champion cross-species best-practice sharing
  • Lead quarterly planning cycles with Marketing & Digital stakeholders

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Business, Communications, or a related field
• 5+ years of experience in digital marketing, marketing operations, or a business-facing digital liaison/account role
• Experience working within a shared services or Center of Excellence operating model is a plus, particularly in highly matrixed teams
• Familiarity with Veeva, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, or similar CRM/marketing platforms sufficient to brief and interpret execution work
• Project management experience is a plus

Skills

• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to translate ambiguous business requests into structured, executable digital briefs and act as a fluent "translator" between business stakeholders and specialist digital teams
• Experience managing a backlog or intake process (e.g., prioritization frameworks, ticketing/briefing systems) across multiple concurrent stakeholders or brands
• Working knowledge of digital channels and campaign types (web, email/SFMC, content, paid/organic) sufficient to scope and brief omnichannel and media work accurately — execution expertise not required
• Ability to build trust and credibility with business stakeholders while managing expectations against execution capacity
• Comfort working with performance data and dashboards to build reporting narratives for business audiences — building the dashboards themselves is not required
• A proactive collaborator who can drive execution excellence across a matrixed team without formal authority over execution resources

Core Competencies

• Accountability: Takes full ownership of outcomes, following through on commitments even amid ambiguity or shifting priorities
• Collaborative Mindset: Builds trust and alignment across cross-functional, matrixed teams, prioritizing shared success over individual wins
• Problem-Solving: Navigates complexity with sound judgment, translating challenges into clear, actionable paths forward
• Sense of Urgency: Moves with pace and purpose, balancing speed with quality to keep initiatives on track
• Adaptability: Adjusts quickly and effectively to shifting priorities, structures, or ways of working, staying productive and steady through change
• Change Catalyst: Drives momentum for new ways of working across a matrixed, multi-stakeholder environment

Pay

The salary range for this role is $142,400.00 - $224,100.00. An employee’s position within the salary range will be based on several factors including, but not limited to relevant education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, geographic location, government requirements, and business or organizational needs. The successful candidate will be eligible for annual bonus and long-term incentive, if applicable.

Benefits

We offer a comprehensive package of benefits. Available benefits include:

• Medical, dental, vision healthcare and other insurance benefits (for employee and family)
• Retirement benefits, including 401(k)
• Paid holidays, vacation, and compassionate and sick days

More information about benefits is available at https://jobs.merck.com/us/en/compensation-and-benefits.

Schedule

• Hybrid (3 days/week onsite)
• 10% travel requirements